DII Men's Basketball Top 25 Poll - No. 10

No new teams slip inside the top 10

February 19, 2013

By Chad Waller, NAIA Director of Communications & Sports Information

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Behind a 14-game winning streak, William Penn (Iowa) stands No. 1 for the second-straight week in the 2012 - 13 NAIA Division II Men's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll, announced Tuesday by the national office. One week after posting their first-ever top ranking, the Statesmen were the unanimous choice with 13 first-place votes and 343 points. The next 12 ranked teams past William Penn all stayed in their spot from last week, with the exception of Northwood (Fla.) and Eastern Oregon flip-flopping Nos. 3 and 4.

Conference and independent postseason tournaments are in full swing through Feb. 26. Check out all of the scores and action by clicking here.

On Feb. 27, the NAIA is providing a free live selection show with graphics to reveal the 32-team bracket for the 22nd Annual NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship. The men's bracket will be announced immediately after the women's at approximately 7:15 p.m. CST. At 4 p.m., the final regular-season Top 25 poll will be posted on www.NAIA.org.

Holding the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC) tournament, William Penn is 28-1 and has the most wins and the best win percentage in the NAIA. The Statesmen, who recorded their first-ever undefeated league mark (12-0), go for a school-record 29th win Friday in the MCC semifinals.

No. 2 Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) gathered 331 total points after earning the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular -season championship. No. 3 Northwood slides up one spot with 321 points. Fourth-ranked Eastern Oregon, who fell to No. 12 Warner Pacific (Ore.) Feb. 15 in the NAIA Game of the Week, slips back one position with 307 points.

No. 17 Grace (Ind.), No. 24 Hastings (Neb.) and No. 25 Northwest (Wash.) make a splash as newcomers. The trio was ranked at least once previously this season.

Those newcomers take the place of Ave Maria (Fla.) (No. 14), Doane (Neb.) (No. 24) and Taylor (Ind.) (No. 25) in the polls.

The Cascade Collegiate Conference is represented the most of any conference or independent with four Top 25 clubs. The Crossroads League, Great Plains Athletic Conference and The Sun Conference each place a triplet of teams on the list. Overall, 12 of the 13 conferences and independents are represented this week in the poll.

The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and independents. For more information on the polls, click here.

NOTES: (All information dates back to 1991 - 1992 season, which is the start of Division II) William Penn (Iowa) becomes the 31st team to be ranked No. 1 on at least 2 occasions... Twelve teams have been ranked in all 11 polls (including Preseason Top 25), with five of those clubs in the top 10 each week... There have been four different teams to be ranked No. 1 this year: Cardinal Stritch (Wis.), Eastern Oregon, Northwood (Fla.) and now William Penn... There have been 42 different teams to be listed in the Top 25 this year... Northwood holds the longest active streak of being ranked with 64-consecutive mentions (dating back to Feb. 6, 2008) and right behind is Davenport (Mich.) with 48-straight, followed by Indiana-Southeast (42) and Northwestern (Iowa) (32)... There have been 36 teams all-time to be ranked No. 1, with nine programs earning at least 10 top mentions... Bethel (Ind.) boasts the most all-time No. 1's with 35, followed by Embry-Riddle (Fla.) with 17, Oregon Tech at 15, MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) (currently a member in NAIA Division I) and former member Northern State (S.D.) with 14, Oklahoma Wesleyan and former member Walsh (Ohio) at 13, Northwood (Fla.) at 12 and Jamestown (N.D.) at 11 - no other school has more than 10 mentions at No. 1... Oregon Tech had its streak of 90-consecutive polls snapped (dating back to Jan. 11, 2005) in the Nov. 27, 2012 poll as the Hustlin' Owls were in the "receiving votes" category.